If you’re looking for a big-top packed with some of the smartest, most innovative people on the planet, look no further. We’ve got automotive technologists and astronomers; quantum researchers and computer animators; supercomputer scientists and computer game designers.

These and many others will be attending our fifth annual GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, Calif., on March 24 – 27. It’s a conference that brings together GPU-powered innovation and breakthroughs across academia, science, government and industry.

We’ve booked a lineup like no other, given the power and broad use of GPU technology around the world.

A few of the topics that will be explored at this year’s GTC:

Vans Shoes’ director of design innovation, Safir Bellali, will explain how his company embraced virtual technology to redefine the way its iconic shoe is designed, developed and marketed. Bellali will show how Vans is using GPUs to enhance everything from its classic slip-on sneakers to its ground-breaking LXVI.

Serious Intent’s Tim Heidman will show how his team of technologists reinvented the America’s Cup for a digital era – using GPUs to track yachts, marks, and high-definition helicopter cameras and weave together a real-time narrative using augmented reality graphics for a worldwide audience.

Evghenii Gaburov, from SURFsara – the Dutch national supercomputing center – and Jeroen Bédorf, at Leiden Observatory, will demonstrate how they used the thousands of GPUs inside the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s supercomputing facility to simulate the past and future of the Milky Way galaxy on a star-by-star basis in less than 10 days.

WB Games Montreal’s lead rendering programmer, Colin Barré-Brisebois, will reveal the rendering techniques behind “Batman: Arkham Origins,” focusing on how a number of advanced graphics features developed in collaboration with NVIDIA enhanced one of 2013’s top-selling games.

Jonathan Rogers, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will describe how GPUs are being used to help robots ‘hedge their bets,’ when navigating unknown environments to protect themselves from surprises.

This is just a sampling of the nearly 500 sessions at GTC. Each is led by developers, engineers, researchers and technologists who are sharing how they are using the power of GPUs to solve some of the world’s toughest computing problems.